1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of life saving equipment, and more particularly, to controlling lifesaving equipment designed for the layperson care giver.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Medical emergency situations may occur in various circumstances and affect different body functions such as: trauma injuries, central nerve system injuries (e.g. stroke with apnea), cardiac conditions (e.g. coronary artery disease or cardiac arrhythmias) respiratory conditions (e.g. pulmonary embolism and chronic obstructive lung disorder, or pulmonary spastic disease), there are also systemic conditions such as anaphylactic shock, that affect multiple body functions.
Immediate medical assistance is critical to the effectiveness of life saving treatment in emergency cases. More often than not, professional medical personnel are not present at the scene of occurrence of an emergency situation, leaving the conduct of first emergency care to a lay person bystander, who is any person physically present at the scene at the time of emergency occurrence, who is capable and willing to assist, despite the lack of professional medical qualifications. The layperson care giver is therefore dependent upon lifesaving equipment which must be ultra-user friendly, as it assumes little or no medical knowledge whatsoever of the layperson care giver.
Currently there are three ubiquitous types of critical care devices: first aid kits—including bandages and the like; an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) being a portable electronic device that applies electrical shock therapy for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias; and oxygen therapy device for either supplying oxygen enrichment or active ventilation to a patient, depending on the patient's condition. Oxygen therapy equipment is generally not available to non-professional users.
An Automated External Defibrillator (AED) is used in cases of life threatening cardiac arrhythmias which can lead to cardiac arrest. As accepted in medical practice, shockable cardiac arrhythmias include ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia (VF/VT). In both these types of shockable cardiac arrhythmia, the heart is electrically active, but in a life-threatening, dysfunctional pattern. In ventricular tachycardia, the heart beats too fast to effectively pump blood. In ventricular fibrillation, the electrical activity of the heart is chaotic, preventing the ventricle from effectively pumping blood. The fibrillation amplitude decreases over time, and eventually reaches Asystole.
AED, like any defibrillator, is not designed to cardiovert Asystole (‘flat line’ patterns) as it is an unconvertible rhythm. The AED provides electrical shock to a patient in cardiac arrhythmias (VF/VT) in order to synchronize the electric activity of the heart muscles, and revive the heart.
Defibrillation therapy is quite effective if applied within a short time window of 5-8 min from the time of VF/VT incidence. Studies show a 71% survival rate in witnessed cardiac arrest in casinos or airports, where AED is readily available, and the patients were treated within three minutes. After eight minutes the survival rate drops dramatically. In emergency scenarios without AED survival rate dropped to 1 to 6%.
AEDs are now commonly installed in public sites and can be used on the scene by layperson bystanders in cases of cardiac emergency. Laws mandating AEDs in public places such as schools and gyms are being enacted around the world. Unfortunately, AEDs solve only a fraction of medical emergencies related to the uncommon occurrence of cardiac arrest. Cardiopulmonary arrest is quite a rare situation, occurring in only 97/10000 cases per year in the age range of 20-75 years, causing only 30 sudden cardiac deaths per million inhabitants every week in industrialized countries. The large majority of emergency scenarios are addressed by a second module, maintaining open airway, supplying oxygen therapy, and, if needed, CPR guidance.
Oxygen therapy can treat and save a myriad of medical situations and is applied in almost one third of emergencies, including respiratory problems, cardiac problems, injuries, stress, and panic attacks.
The chest pad ECG detectors of AED devices require exposing a person's chest, often in public places. This may be highly uncomfortable for many people, especially for women or for the elderly. Therefore it would be highly desirable to have equipment that would require attachment of chest pads of an AED device only in the fraction of emergency cases that include shockable arrhythmias requiring defibrillation.
In oxygen therapy, two main systems are utilized depending on the ability of the patient to breath. If the patient is generally breathing by himself, but experiences difficulty to breath, oxygen enrichment is applied using an oxygenation device. This device is designed to increase the percentage of oxygen in the inhaled gas mixture delivered to the patient, by adding pure oxygen (from a pressurized oxygen tank through a non-invasive face mask or low pressure enrichment nasal cannula), such that the oxygen is mixed with the inhaled air, enhancing oxygen intake and maintaining body functions. In case the patient is not breathing autonomously, a ventilator should be applied, supplying pressurized air (with or without oxygen enrichment) to the patient actively inflating his lungs (either through a non-invasive face mask, or an endotracheal tube etc.). In the context discussed herein, active ventilation and passive oxygen enrichment will be commonly referred to as ventilation.
To address a wider range of emergency scenarios, an emergency device is required to supply both AED and Oxygen therapy.
Few companies provide these two modules in one carrying case. A typical example would be a portable kit of LIFE Corporation with emergency oxygen cylinder, and an AED defibrillator. In these products, the two separate modules reside in one package while being completely separated, with no communication or physical connection between them.
Due to the complexity of differential diagnosis between the various medical emergencies, the limited scope and complexity of operation of the current equipment, the stressful nature of emergency situation and the lack of medical skills of the bystander caregiver, it is highly required to provide the public with an integrated, decision assisted critical care system for successfully managing a wide scope of emergency situations, and save human lives
WIPO Patent Application No. WO2011/004371 teaches a portable resuscitation system that includes a ventilation device, vital signs tracking device and airway opening device. The system is configured to track the vital signs, analyze them and provide on-place diagnosis, guidance and feedback to the caregiver. By doing so, the layperson care giver is provided with valuable guidance as to how and when to apply the ventilation device, based on the monitored vital signs. While the aforementioned system provides guidance to a layperson care giver, it is limited to a ventilation device.
US2004/0162510 describes an apparatus for performing external chest compression and defibrillation. The apparatus is comprised of a backboard to which is attached at least one chest compression member. The control circuits and the electrodes for sensing an event requiring defibrillation and for applying the electric shock and activating the chest compression member are integrated into the backboard. Embodiments of the apparatus comprise ventilators and other sensors and devices.
US2005/0085799 and WO 2010/059049 describe apparatus that comprises components that enable a non-professional to administer emergency medical treatment including external defibrillation, ventilation, and automatic chest compression.
It is a goal of the present invention to provide a device that will further cater for the needs of layperson care giver in medical emergency conditions that required either ventilation or defibrillation or both.
It is another goal of the present invention to provide a device comprising a secondary ECG detector to monitor and alert if heart fibrillation is detected requiring attachment of chest pads of an AED device.